Heavily, He Flies
by threader
Summary: Itachi Uchiha, after releasing Edo Tensei, expected the blackness of death. Instead, he woke up and found himself in a world filled with secret agents and superheroes, in the raw wind of a new world. -ON HIATUS-
1. Chapter 1

**A new fanfic? Hell yeah. Keep in mind that I haven't watched Naruto in a long time. This plot bunny has been assaulting me lately and I just need to write it out. Itachi is my favorite character and probably I see him through fangirl glasses so he will be OOC. All AvengersXNaruto crossovers seem to center around either Sakura or Naruto, so I tried writing it with Itachi.**

 **Also this fanfic is an example of in medias res, but I will be putting flashback scenes. Also, this wasn't beta-read and I possess a horrible grammar. I still do hope that this will be readable to you.**

 **Cover image is not mine**

 **Title is from Ted Hughes**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own the MCU nor I own Naruto. I'm just a poor girl.**

 _Hello-_ emphasis/ flashbacks

'Hello'- thought

"Hello"- normal speech

* * *

 _Take the hating eyes of martyrs,_

 _presidents, bus collectors,_

 _bank managers, soldiers._

 _Bury them._

 _Take my eyes, half blind_

 _and falling into the air._

 _Bury them._

 _-Anne Sexton, The Furies (The Fury of Hating Eyes)_

Clint lifted the cup of coffee and sipped its contents. He tried not to wince in pain because damn, the coffee was too hot and _did the barista put the whole thing on a giant fucking fireball because no coffee should be this hot._

His gaze shifted to his target. He eyed the man surreptitiously. "Handsome" was certainly a word that could describe the target's features although it did not fit quite well. "Beautiful" could also be used; the target was certainly prettier than some women Clint encountered. However, in Clint's opinion, the word "androgynous" fit the target perfectly. Sleek hair, black as crow's wings, pulled back in a low ponytail, onyx black eyes bordered by commercial-worthy eyelashes, ivory white skin and aristocratic features, the pronounced tear troughs under his eyes served to make him look older and wise beyond his years. No wonder Clint could hear high-pitched giggling and suppressed squeals from a group of girls behind his back.

"Agent Barton, how are things at your end?", a voice in his comm-link asked.

"Perfectly fine", Clint replied, pretending to look outside. He spotted a plain, black car he immediately knew was S.H.I.E.L.D's. Standing outside the car was a middle-aged, balding man in a business suit and aviator glasses. Phil Coulson was good at his job at being perfectly ordinary and extremely boring, of course this was a façade Phil had practiced through the years. None of the passers-by even glanced twice at him.

"The target's shift is about to end. I suggest you finish that coffee and muffin", Phil said not-so-helpfully.

* * *

 _Clint looked at the relatively thin folder embossed with the S.H.I.E.L.D logo that was slid across the table from his boss. He raised an eyebrow at Fury._

" _What's this about?", the archer asked._

" _We have progress on the Crow case. This is what we gathered and the possible identities of the vigilante", Fury answered._

 _The Crow was someone who popped into S.H.I.E.L.D's radar since two years ago. A vigilante who dropped criminals and other miscreants in front of the NYPD. The odd thing was the Crow did not kill, although he showed capabilities to easily take away life. He was named as such because of the porcelain mask he wore that resembled that of the bird's. So far, from the handful of information S.H.I.E.L.D possessed, the Crow seemed to be a highly-skilled individual that could be honed to the agency's ideals. God knows S.H.I.E.L.D. needs more people like Clint who are willing to safeguard the world through the shadows. The Crow displayed abilities such as proficient hand-to-hand combat, accuracy with throwing weapons like shuriken (a running joke among agents was that the Crow was actually a ninja, a bad ninja at that), proficient swordsmanship (the few CCTV footage that S.H.I.E.L.D gathered showed the man with a sword strapped beneath the strange cloak he wore), and inhumane speed, there were rumors going on that the Crow is capable of dodging bullets. If, the fearful statements of the criminals the vigilante stopped were true._

 _Clint opened the folder and the first thing he saw was a profile of a young man._

" _The first person's profile claims to be Itachi Uchiha. There are no official records of him existing, the ones that we found are made by talented hackers and the paperwork he submitted are obviously forged, skillful forgery, I might add. He claims to hail from a faraway town in Japan and a high school graduate. He started to "exist" two years ago when he began working in a café in Manhattan.", Fury explained, boring his single eye at Clint. "The others are not that interesting and I already sent Phil in advance to interview the other individuals we are speculating to be Crow."_

 _Clint looked at Fury, "Then why did you call me?"_

" _I want you to track down Uchiha and observe him if there's any evidence that might confirm his identity as Crow", the Director replied._

* * *

Clint glanced bravely at Itachi Uchiha. His shift was supposed to end at 2:00 and there are five minutes left before Uchiha would leave the place. He observed as the young man disappeared in the door behind the counter labelled 'for authorized personnel only'. He would probably change his clothes and go to the cage matches he attends downtown.

Clint stood up, his coffee half-finished but the pastry already gone, and went to the counter and dropped a few coins on the tipping jar. He pushed the door of the café open, hearing a "Thank you and come again" from another person in the wait staff. The archer jogged up the road and met with Phil.

"I'll take it from here", Clint said.

"Okay, I get it, but we'll follow you in case of emergency. So far, the others I've interviewed showed no evidence of being able to do what Crow does.", Phil stated calmly. The middle-aged agent probably meant "not all that Crow does". Some of the interviewees from the brief scan of the folder included martial artists and professionals with other hobbies.

"We'll not be far away", Phil added, entering the car and shutting the door.

'Two and a half minutes left', Clint thought. He hid in the alley nearest to him. Finally, after two and a half minutes, the target exited the café wearing a fitting black turtleneck with a thin red long-sleeved jacket on the top. He also wore denim jeans and sneakers.

"What should I do again?", he asked over the comm-link.

He could hear Phil's weary sigh from afar, "Follow and observe him. If you manage to get him alone, talk to him and bring him in."

* * *

 _Two years ago_

 _There was something wet on his face._

 _'Wait', Itachi thought. Regaining his senses and his consciousness, he opened his eyes and saw the opaque grey sky blurring the world as heavy raindrops fell from above. He rose up and wrinkled his nose as the stench of what could be rotten food and utter garbage invaded his olfactory senses. Dumpsters overflowing with garbage lined the sides of the alley._

 _'I'm supposed to be dead', he thought bitterly. Is this some kind of genjutsu? He pushed some chakra into his eyes to activate his Sharingan (which strangely, was clear as day) and tried to see the chakra flow of genjutsu. Nope, there was none. He formed a ram seal and intoned, "Kai", but it yielded no results either._

 _So either this was a very powerful genjutsu or it was real. Unfortunately, the latter seems to be a more acceptable explanation of his situation._

 _Itachi stood up. He noticed that he was wearing the clothes he died in. The long read cloak over his mesh shirt and pants with shinobi sandals. Itachi quickly made his way out of the alley and his black eyes widened considerably._

 _The Uchiha couldn't believe in what he was seeing. Not even Amegakure matched how advanced and modern the place is. For a moment, he forgot how to breathe, completely taken aback and astonished by the sight that lay in front of him._

 _Buildings, like little fingers that attempt to grasp the heavens, decorated the skyline. They seem to be made of metal and concrete, and some of them were made of glass. Colorful lights that were blurred by the rain constantly blinked on and off. Strange metal wagons passed by, they were faster than shinobi could think of running (except maybe the Yondaime and Shisui no Shunshin), occasionally passing by puddles of water and splashing water all over. People in various clothing hurried to take shelter in the many shops that lined the streets while the ones with umbrellas walked on the concrete streets, seemingly apathetic of other people's business. He wondered how many people lived in this large expanse of land._

 _This was a sight the Uchiha was not expecting to see in his life. It was clear, this was no genjutsu and the world he knew of was gone._

* * *

Itachi knew since two days ago that he was being followed. He inwardly cursed himself for being clumsy and not being more careful with his identity. But he could do nothing about it, he had to see for himself what will be the consequences to his actions. He had been doing vigilante work as the Crow. It was nothing major really, just thieves and usual street thugs that assaulted the helpless. It was a personal choice not to confront the bigger crime groups in New York such as the one based in Hell's Kitchen, because he was a single individual and ninja or not, he would still die because of a gunshot wound. His jutsus would be categorized by people as superpowers and unlike in the Elemental Nations where civilians knew of the dark underbelly that rules the world, here, people slept at night knowing the oddest thing was a billionaire in a flying metal suit.

Now people are looking for him and they mean business. He somehow caught the attention of this world's equivalent of ANBU. He knew when to spot a spy. Two days ago, a youthful (no, he does not mean it _that_ way. Maito Gai forever ruined the color green to Itachi and there's a valid reason why he suggested to Kisame to go find the Kyuubi rather than confront Maito Gai) couple turned up in the cafe and started asking the weirdest questions to the manager in the guise of a casual conversation.

He could sense a man following him and Itachi's instincts screamed "DANGEROUS", the first time it happened in the past two years. He glanced at the display glass on the opposite side of the road, and sure enough, there was the man who was pretending to look around his surroundings and occasionally taking out a camera, acting as a first time tourist. He also spotted a black car that he was quite sure was parked outside the cafe earlier. He narrowed his eyes. The man was intent on following him, worse, he has companions. They were complete unknowns. There was only one option left: to confront his pursuers.

Itachi looked around, trying to find a suitable place for confrontation. He spotted a darkened alley and casually waltzed unto it. He hid beneath the stairs and waited for his would-be captor.

The footseps were edging closer and closer, Itachi sharpened his senses and prayed to the gods that hopefully, this will not end in a fight. He couldn't use his ninjutsu, so using his crows were out. Genjutsu? Maybe he could trick these people into his illusions? But the moment he will use genjutsu will also be the moment he would be considered abnormal. He heard human experimentation was done in this world and Itachi did not want to be put under the scalpel, but these people were not trained to counter illusions. In any situation, he has to use taijutsu. He checked the pouch he always wore where he stored his throwing tools (throwing knives that resembled kunai and shuriken), he could use them but shooting a gun was much faster...

He heard footsteps stepping into the alley, near the entrance probably deciding whether to enter or not.

"I know you're in there", the voice said in an almost diplomatic tone. "So, please come out".

'At least they're polite', Itachi thought. Breathing deeply, Itachi stepped out of his hiding place, confronting his pursuer. His pursuer was a man around his middle ages with cropped blonde hair and blue eyes. The man's strong forearm muscles suggested that he used a weapon that stressed these parts, perhaps a sword or more likely, a bow and arrow, definitely not a gun. His would-be captor wore a red shirt with grey hoodie, cargo pants and combat boots. There was something in the man's eyes that made Itachi wary, those eyes definitely had seen death and caused some of the deaths himself at the same time there was a certain kind of softness that suggested that the man wasn't a full cold-blooded killer.

"Are you here to kill me?", Itachi asked calmly.

"You're too calm for a man who's asking whether he's gonna die or not", the man remarked. He paused, "No I'm not going to kill you. I'm here to bring you in."

"Capture, then? To whom do I owe the honor?", the shinobi asked.

"Clint Barton of the Strategic Homeland Intervention and Enforcement Division"

Itachi tilted his head, "That's a mouthful"

"Will you come with us peacefully?", Clint asked.

It took a second for the sentence to sink in. "Where are we going and why are you capturing me?". He narrowed his eyes at Clint, almost tempted to use the Sharingan to escape, but there's also the curiosity on what this Strategic Homeland Intervention and Enforcement Division was capable of. Were they like ANBU? What is their purpose? Why are they keeping an eye on me? Do they maintain peace? These questions kept echoing in Itachi's mind.

"Classified", his captor deadpanned. "As for your other question, we speculate that you are the vigilante known as Crow"."

"That's ridiculous", Itachi scoffed. The agency seems to be the kind that hides top secret stuff and classified information. A spy organization, perhaps?

"Whether or not you're Crow, you're coming with us", Clint said threateningly.

"What makes you so confident?", Itachi challenged.

Clint sighed, "It's because"...the man trailed as he picked out his gun from its holster..."I have this gun and you are surrounded by our snipers. Some of our agency's best agents are in here armed to the bone. You can either come in peacefully or we take you in forcefully."

Itachi gritted his teeth, he did not expect for it to end up like this. He didn't want to fight at the same time. Should he come in? Or not? He has nothing left to lose, only his insignificant life. A plan was forming in his head. "Fine, I'll come with you. It's not like I have a choice, do I?"

 **You've reached the end of the chapter!** **I know Itachi is OOC and probably would've fought, but I feel like not fighting is the right thing to do. I also know this chapter is hurried and a bit chunky, I'm sorry for that.** **Thank you for reading! Please leave a review, follow, or favorite. If you have suggestions you can PM me.**

 **Question: Do you think Itachi could really turn into a murder of crows? Not just a genjutsu or a clone technique, but can actually transfigure his body parts into birds? I mean Konan can turn into paper...**

 **Anyways, leave your opinion on the review box regarding this issue.**

 **Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. Reviews are like cookies to me. They make me fatter than I already am but they're oh so delicious!**

 **Until next time! Oh, leave a review. Constructive criticism is especially welcome! Flames will be used to make s'mores!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay. Thank you for all the guys who left eight reviews. That means a lot to me. Also, thank you for all those who followed and favorited this story. Although I'm a bit disappointed to find that in the 501 that viewed this story, only eight people bothered to leave a review. *Sigh*I really can't force you guys to make a review and I think holding the story hostage just for reviews is plain dishonorable. It doesn't need to be constructive. Even if it's just one word or saying what part you like or suggestions, that is enough for me. I know you like the story because you followed or favorited it but how do I know about what you think about my story in general? It's your responsibility as readers to give feedback and my responsibility as an author to give you content.**

 **Anyways, here's the second chapter. Hope you will like it. Remember to leave a review so I know what you think :). Also, shout-out to LadyKG who beta-read my chapter. You're so awesome. Readers, go check her out.**

 **This is a flashback chapter. Specifically, what happened two years ago when Itachi first arrived in the MCU.**

 **Warnings: OOCness, mentions of prostitution and abuse**

"Hello"-ordinary speech

("Hello")- foreign language in a country

 _Hello_ -emphasis/written language

'Hello'-thoughts

* * *

 _My God, my God, what queer corner am I in?_

 _Didn't I die, blood running down the post,_

 _lungs gagging for air, die there for the sin_

 _of anyone, my sour mouth giving up the ghost?_

 _Surely my body is done? Surely I died?_

 _And yet, I know, I'm here. What place is this?_

 _Cold and queer, I sting with life. I lied._

 _Yes, I lied._

 _-Anne Sexton, In the Deep Museum_

Itachi smiled as he walked up to his brother in a slow pace. Each step closer to diminish his distance from Sasuke was a struggle. He did not deserve this chance to reunite with his beloved little brother. He slaughtered his clan, killed his parents, and brought so much pain to his brother. But if this is the last time he will see his brother, he will revel every second of it.

"You don't have to forgive me.", Itachi said as he felt his reanimated body disintegrate. "And no matter what you do from here on out. Know this…", he trailed off, wrapping his arms around his brother's shoulders, gently pulling Sasuke's head closer to his so their foreheads almost pressed. The cracks across his reanimated body are becoming larger and his clothes and body are returning to the form it should be dust. This will be the last time he will ever touch his brother.

Itachi took one last living breath. "I will always love you"

Otherworldly light covered Itachi's form as the Edo Tensei was released. He could feel himself being discharged from the sacrificial body of the Konoha shinobi. He knew he wasn't going to wake up again. He knew he wouldn't breathe again

He hopes his little brother won't destroy Konoha, but the criminal has faith in Naruto Uzumaki. The jinchuuriki would steer Sasuke away from that fate.

He closed his eyes, expecting the black oblivion to take away his soul. The Uchiha felt his body disappear from the mortal plane. And with that, Itachi Uchiha, prodigy and kinslayer died for the second time.

* * *

There was something wet on his face.

'Wait,' Itachi thought. Regaining his senses and his consciousness, he opened his eyes and saw the opaque grey sky blurring the world as heavy raindrops fell from above. He rose up and wrinkled his nose as the stench of what could be rotten food and utter garbage invaded his olfactory senses. Dumpsters overflowing with waste lined the sides of the alley. The rain did not remind him of Pein's rain over Amegakure.

'I'm supposed to be dead,' he thought bitterly. He was prepared to face his judgment. Itachi was not a person to believe in the afterlife, he was by philosophy an existentialist. There was no point in believing something that did not exist. Life is what you make of it.

'Is this some kind of genjutsu?' He pushed some chakra into his eyes to activate his Sharingan (which strangely, was clear as day) and tried to see the chakra flow of genjutsu. Nope, there was none. He formed a ram seal and intoned, "Kai", but it yielded no results either.

So either this was a very powerful genjutsu or it was real. Unfortunately, the latter seems to be a more acceptable explanation of his situation.

Itachi stood up. He noticed that he was wearing the clothes he died in. The long read cloak over his mesh shirt and pants with shinobi sandals. Even the standard Akatsuki nail polish was there. Itachi quickly made his way out of the alley and his black eyes widened considerably.

The Uchiha couldn't believe in what he was seeing. Not even Amegakure matched how advanced and modern the place is. For a moment, he forgot how to breathe, completely taken aback and astonished by the sight that lay in front of him.

Buildings, like little fingers that attempt to grasp the heavens, decorated the skyline. They seem to be made of metal and concrete, and some of them were made of glass. Colorful lights that were blurred by the rain constantly blinked on and off _._ Strange metal wagons passed by, they were faster than shinobi could think of running (except maybe the Yondaime and Shunshin no Shisui), occasionally passing by puddles of water and splashing water all over. People in various clothing hurried to take shelter in the many shops that lined the streets while the ones with umbrellas walked on the concrete streets, seemingly apathetic of other people's business. He wondered how many people lived in this large expanse of land.

Itachi stood there, in the mouth of the alley, unsure of what he was going to do.

"Piss off," a distinctly male voice said to the shinobi.

The Uchiha looked towards the man and said, "(I'm sorry)"

The man just snorted. "Damn foreign brats", the man said. Hurrying to walk away from Itachi.

The Akatsuki member blinked. 'They speak a different language here,' he thought.

At least now, he has a short-term goal.

* * *

Trying to learn a new language when you don't know where to begin is harder than Itachi thought. He had been wandering around in the wet streets for what felt like hours with a goal in mind but no idea how to achieve it.

Itachi had done infiltration missions before. Back when he was in ANBU and in Akatsuki where he has to gather information about the jinchuuriki. This was a new world, and from the looks of it, there was no going back in the Elemental countries. So he has to create a new identity for himself, a false one. Technology here seems to be far more advanced than the ones in his home world, so he had to be careful not to attract the wrong sort of attention to himself. It shouldn't be too hard to blend in (for example, no one is looking at him right now because he used his ninja skills to rob a thrift shop of some clothes to blend into the crowd; stealing was much easier than maintaining a henge for hours). He would just need some time and an open mind. Itachi is a prodigy at shinobi arts, he could adapt to situations easily.

Wandering aimlessly around the city, trying to spot any sign of familiarity was all but a lost cause. He spotted his reflection on the glass, he still looked the same. He wore a dark purple, almost black, three-fourths sleeved shirt and black denim pants which made Itachi uncomfortable. On his feet were a stolen pair of worn Chucks. His outfit is not suitable for battle, at all. His former clothes were stored in a rucksack which was also pilfered from the thrift shop.

He blinked, and spotted a myriad of books displayed on the glass window.

'This might be a good place to start,' Itachi thought. He entered the bookstore.

Not long after, he found the reference section and spotted something familiar. 辞書(jisho). Itachi breathed a sigh of relief, a dictionary. Maybe his language may not be lost at all. His eyes drifted to the other tomes along with the 辞書(jisho) and caught sight of something called 'Japanese-English' dictionary. He found his hand reaching out towards the thick tome. Itachi took it out of the shelf and leafed through the pages and recognized the characters that is used around this place along with the language he was familiar with.

The Uchiha activated his clan's dojutsu and started studying. Learning a new language usually takes months or even years. But Itachi wasn't called a genius for nothing. Also, thank the gods for overpowered eye techniques.

Itachi raised an eyebrow as he flipped the page which highlights the differences between English and Japanese grammar. He finished the word bank section of the small, thick book. Itachi was tempted to steal the dictionary, but it appears that this place has advanced forms of cameras that are able to record movements. He was quite confident that he could speak the language proficiently even though he still hasn't tried speaking it yet. His mother tongue, or as it is called here, Nihongo or Japanese is used in an island nation known as Japan. It is located in the far eastern side of this world and was known to have samurai and ninja. He didn't know what roles samurai or ninja played in this world but as far as Itachi was concerned, they exist. There are many differences between English and Japanese. The most obvious one is the system of writing; Japanese has thousands of characters; English only has 26 letters. The grammar also gave Itachi a headache. There were so many rules and it was so confusing. For example, the sentence, "All the faith he had had had had no effect on the outcome of his life." Is considered grammatically correct because the first pair of had had is in the past perfect tense while the second pair-

Itachi did not want to think about it. Also, the structure of sentences weirded him out, but he guessed that once he gets used to using the English language, the feeling of being bothered will fade away.

"Excuse me," a voice interrupted him in his reading. Itachi looked up (he was sitting on the floor) and saw a woman wearing an employee's uniform looking at him.

"I'm sorry, but we're about to close."

It took about three seconds for Itachi to process the words. He opened his mouth and closed it again. Should he really speak a language he hasn't practiced? Oh well, there's no harm trying. "That is fine. I am sorry."

"Shouldn't you be home right now? Aren't your parents worried?", the woman inquired.

Itachi cocked his head on one side. "Parents...dead. Homeless," he confessed. Hopefully, he got what he meant across and not confuse the woman.

"Oh," the woman said, looking at the floor apologetically. Itachi wanted to say something, that it was not her fault his parents are dead (because he killed them himself), but he was not confident if he will be able to convey his feelings well.

"I now go," he said, standing up. He was about to walk towards the exit when the woman gripped his wrist tightly which promoted Itachi to stop and face her.

"You can stay with me," she said, blushing.

Itachi furrowed his brows in confusion. The woman seems sincere in her offer with no underlying motives whatsoever. Itachi knew this because as a shinobi and ex-ANBU, he was trained how to read people based on their movements and body language. "Why help me? I is a stranger to you."

The woman giggled on his mistakes. "I am helping you because I want to help. It's hard being homeless in New York and trust me, I've been there and done that."

"I understand. Thank you."

"Good, let's go."

The woman practically dragged Itachi out of the bookshop. "I walk too, you know," he said in monotone.

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine."

"I'm Daphne, by the way," she said reaching out a hand.

Itachi looked at her hand blankly, "Itachi," he said and bowed in greeting.

"You know you're supposed to shake the hand of someone who introduces his or herself to you."

Itachi blinked. "I keep in mind"

He followed Daphne through the streets of New York. Eventually, they reached a nondescript brownstone building which housed several apartment complexes. They went up the creaking and rusting iron stairs. Itachi was thankful that Daphne let him into her place, he thought as he entered the woman's home. The apartment was nice, little place. It smelled of coffee and cookies.

"I'm sorry I don't have a spare room. You can crash on the couch," Daphne said.

"Thank you."

Daphne waved her hands. "Hey, no problem as long as you don't do anything perverted or creepy and clean up after your own mess. Bathroom's down the hall. Also, don't eat everything in the kitchen. You can cook, that's fine."

Itachi nodded in agreement. He had no plan on cooking. He tried making tea once and he managed to set the water on fire. He noticed shelves filled with books. The Uchiha drifted towards the bookshelves and picked out one title, "The Crow."

"What is this?", he asked.

"Seriously?", Daphne said incredulously, "Those are comic books. Feel free to read them."

Itachi flipped the book open and was surprised to see illustrations. Comic books were visual novels. He smoothly went to the couch and took off the Chucks. He laid down and flipped the comic book open.

 _People once believed that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes, something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can't rest. Then sometimes, just sometimes, the crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right._

The protagonist of the comic book, Eric and his fiancée, Shelly, are on their way back from a romantic get-away, when their vehicle breaks down on a deserted road. A car full of gang members stops, not to help, but to take advantage of the couple's misfortune. They shoot Eric in the head paralysing him while they rape and kill his fiancée in the car, Eric dying hours later in the hospital. A year later, resurrected by The Crow, Eric exacts vengeance on the men responsible for their deaths.

'Revenge, such a petty thing,' Itachi thought. His mind flowed to his crow summons. He put the comic book down and walked towards the balcony. New York was an amazing at night, with the lights on the streets dancing and the lights of the buildings never gone. No wonder the city was called the city never sleeps and it holds truth, for the streets are just as busy and hectic as it was in the morning.

He breathed in the night's cold, crisp air and exhaled.

He flipped through seals with both hands (he can do one-handed seals, but it was the first time he would attempt summoning while he was in another world; Itachi did not want to risk the effectiveness of the jutsu). Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram. He slammed his hand to the balcony's iron floor and a circular spiderweb-like design spread in all directions.

A puff of smoke popped and cleared as quickly as it came. On the balcony floor was a jungle crow who flapped its wings, blinking at Itachi with its beady black eyes. The bird was at least two feet long and the talons were sharp.

"(Itachi!)", the bird cawed. "(We thought you were dead)"

"(I was dead, Kurogami)," Itachi replied. "(I was revived using Edo Tensei and somehow, instead of going to the Pure Land, I ended up here)."

"(What about your disease?)". Itachi reached out his arm and the bird hopped and perched on it.

"(My disease?)", Itachi echoed. It was true, he hadn't had any chest pains or heart attacks nor had he succumbed to a violent coughing fit with a lot of blood. Maybe the Edo Tensei healed his disease and it carried on in this world? If so, Itachi owes too much to the Konoha shinobi whose body was sacrificed for him. "(I guess it's not present in my body anymore)."

"(That's good, then. But be careful, Itachi. Your disease may come back and your Sharingan may be clear as day but it never hurts to be cautious. I know you're cautious, but don't overuse the Mangekyo, alright?)"

Itachi nodded. "(How did you know I'm not blind anymore?)"

If the bird could smile, Kurogami would've done so, but he can't so he didn't. "(Your eyes aren't cloudy as it used to be.)"

"(Do you think the Kami has something to do with this?)", Itachi asked the crow.

"(You have to wait for their omens. That is, if they appear to you)," Kurogami replied.

"(Thank you. You may leave now)," Itachi said. The crow poofed away and Itachi stood alone on the balcony, the roaring noise of New York, an echo in his ears.

* * *

It was common among shinobis and kunoichis alike to be light sleepers. One has to be alert about his or her surroundings for a job as dangerous as a ninja's. So it was no surprise that when the first rays of sunlight hit Itachi's face, he groaned and sat up the couch, awake.

He still hadn't collected information regarding this world. History, way of life, geography, culture, social norms, et cetera. He looked at the ceiling and sighed. What is his purpose in being here? He was supposed to be dead. Was this some kind of second life to redeem himself from his sins?

Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. It is up to you to give life a meaning. He would try his best to give his life meaning in here. He would try to live, for Sasuke's sake. He hopes his brother also wishes what's best for him, although Itachi argued it would be selfish. Does his brother wanted him to live?

He rose up the couch and noticed that the comic book was lying face down, sighing Itachi rose out of the couch and continued reading. It seems that the Crow became some kind of angel of death, killing criminals more brutally than what the criminals did. Is that what shinobi are? Murderers set against murderers? Attack dogs against attack dogs? He was sure there were scum in this world, society cannot exist without its dregs. It was truth, just like a pet with a pest.

He heard the door open and out came Daphne with disheveled hair and droopy eyes. "Good morning," Itachi greeted. The woman jumped in surprise, but eventually relaxed when she saw Itachi.

"Oh...yeah, morning," she greeted back.

"What do you do today?", the shinobi asked.

The woman blinked. "Oh, it's my day-off. I hoped I can help you find a new home or something. Anything, really. I'd be happy to help."

"Thank you very much. I owe you."

Daphne waved it off, "It's fine. It's fine. I'm used to help people anyway. I volunteer at soup kitchens and the orphanage during my free time. Come on, let's get breakfast."

"Do you not cook?"

Daphne shook her head. "No, no. It's my way making a guest feel welcome. Come on, change your clothes."

Itachi lifted the hem of his shirt-

"No, no, no," Daphne shrieked, "Go change in the bathroom!"

Itachi looked at her blankly, but just nodded. He picked up his rucksack which contained other stolen clothes and headed towards the bathroom.

He exited wearing a simple black shirt that was too tight for Itachi's taste and loose black pants. On his feet were the same pair of Converse shoes. Itachi went to the living room and found Daphne wearing a new set of clothes.

"Looking good," Daphne complimented.

Itachi blinked. It was a long time since somebody praised him so casually. He did not know what to say. "We go now."

"Okay," Daphne said picking up her handbag and slinging it on her shoulders. Itachi followed Daphne out of the apartment and into the streets. She led him to a breakfast place called "Matt's Diner".

"The pancakes in here are phenomenal," Daphne said, her eyes glittering. "What do you want?"

Itachi squinted as he tried to read the menu. "I'll get pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream," he said after much struggle. The orders arrived not long after. While he was eating, Itachi's senses were screaming at him. He swiftly turned around and spotted a blonde woman who was staring at him like a hawk. He narrowed her eyes at her. Instead of being discouraged, the woman seem to be more determined. She stood up and slowly walked towards their table.

Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Alarm bells were ringing in Itachi's mind. "Hello," she greeted. "Are you interested in becoming a model?"

"Me?" Daphne pointed to herself.

"No, hon. Him," the strange woman pointed to Itachi.

"I will not," Itachi denied.

"Come on, honey. You have the looks to become the next top model. Imagine yourself posing for big brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Armani! That hair and lashes of yours deserve a L'oreal commercial!", she said loudly, her hands waving wildly.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot accept your offer," Itachi reiterated.

The woman sighed, "That's too bad. Anyways, it's nice meeting you, handsome." She winked at Itachi.

Itachi watched as the woman left the diner. He sensed Daphne staring at him.

"Why you look at me like that?", asked Itachi.

"You sure don't want to model? I mean it can be difficult but the opportunity is big. You need the money," Daphne said.

The Uchiha shook his head. He didn't want to explain his reasons. He didn't trust the woman and he heavily doubted if she was a legitimate model scout. Also, he thought that being a model was pretentious job and he didn't want to join an industry that thrived in fakeness. He had enough of those in his past life.

He still needed to do research. "I need to go."

"Wait," Daphne said. She ruffled through her pocket and handed Itachi coins and few paper bills.

'Ah, money', he thought. "Thank you."

Itachi stood up and left through the door. The ex-criminal exited the diner with a renewed sense of determination. He was quite confident that he could speak the language proficiently even though he still has to improve in some places.

He trudged the city, New York, as he learned the name, with long strides. He would occasionally pass by a gaggle of girls who would look at him like they have a Byakugan and would start to giggle silently. He sighed, even in this world, he couldn't seem to get rid of fangirls. He shuddered at the thought of the word. He winced at the sudden jolt of pain that stung his head, it seems to have came from the back of his eyes. He put his temples between his thumb and middle finger and started massaging it, hoping that the pain would go away. Maybe he shouldn't have used the Sharingan to memorize the dictionary.

'Focus, Itachi,' he chided himself. He straightened up and took slow, even breaths. First, he needs to find a library to gather information about the world. History, How to be considered as an 'adult', taboos, social norms, etc. He heard about a thing called the "Internet" which was described in the dictionary as global system of interconnected computer networks that use the Internet protocol suite to link billions of devices worldwide. He heard about computers in his world before, but those computers were low-processing and were usually used by medics to monitor vital signs. So basically, he did not encounter them before. He may have to learn how to use the 'internet' in order to fit in better in this technologically advanced world.

He continued to walk with these particular thoughts in mind. There were so many things in New York that Itachi was a stranger with. The blinding lights, the giant televisions, the busy streets, the apathetic people, the cars (he finally learned the term), the skyscrapers, et cetera. Not to mention, he had no idea how to go to the library.

He realized something. The ex-nukenin mentally facepalmed himself for not asking Daphne the directions to the library.

"I is...sorry," Itachi said slowly as he blocked a teenage girl who had something plugged on her ears.

The girl, seemed to have perked up at Itachi's presence. She took off her ear phones and looked at Itachi like she was eating him with her eyes. "Yes?"

"Library...where?", Itachi asked. For a first-time user of a foreign language, he was doing good.

"Oh...", the girl's voice lowered as she trailed off. "You ride a cab...you're foreign, right? So drivers may not understand you. I guess you can walk it's not really far from here. You walk ahead until you reach that brown building, you see that? Turn southeast from there go ahead and turn right. You will see a sign leading to 42nd street and you can easily get to the public library from there. The library's big and has lions on it, so you won't miss it."

Itachi tilted his head, trying to understand what the girl rambled off. "I see...thank you."

The girl blinked, the man already disappeared from her sight. She tried to spot him in the crowd, but no luck. Damn, and she was interested to get his number.

Meanwhile, Itachi walked in a leisurely pace, admiring the structure of the buildings silently as he walked towards the public library. After around 20 minutes of walking, Itachi arrived in the library. The exterior was made of stone and the architecture is what the dictionary illustration described as 'Greek', reminiscent of the temples the ancient people of a country called Greece built. Two majestic marble lions lie on the sides of the stairway of the entrance.

He noticed the looming crowd that gathered in the front of the building. He sighed, it seems that the library is still closed.

The woman from the diner came back in Itachi's mind. His instincts wouldn't have screamed at him if the woman was not remotely dangerous. or without hidden intentions. It was more of the latter than the former.

Making a decision, Itachi turned to the side of the building, hidden in the shadows. He formed a seal with his right hand and intoned, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu" (Shadow Clone Technique). Two identical clones of Itachi popped into existence.

"(Gather information once the library opens. I'll be following someone. Keep yourselves under a henge to not cause confusion)," he instructed. Both of clones nodded and transformed themselves to two nondescript young men that perfectly blended in with New York's scene. The two clones were gone and joined the early morning crowd in front of New York Public Library.

He formed seals for the summoning technique, Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram, slammed his hands to the ground and a murder of crows appeared to his will. "(I want you to find this woman)." He projected an image telepathically to the crows' minds. The murder flew away in different directions. Crows could recognize people's faces, this ability is an extended form of the corvid's skill of recognizing other fellow crows and also to spot predators.

Itachi walked out of the corner and calmly retraced his footsteps back to where he first saw the woman. He reached "Matt's Diner" and contemplated what his next move would be. Maybe he could ask people if they saw the woman? He shot down the idea immediately, it seemed unlikely that the people around here would remember the woman from earlier.

A wild cawing echoed in Itachi's mind.

'Good,' he thought. It meant his crows found something. The words, 'Warehouse', 'Docks', 'Women' were the clues that the woman's business was not honest at all. Itachi sensed his crows were at the edge of the city. They seem to have flocked together once one of them spotted the woman Itachi was looking for.

Obviously, Itachi could not hop around buildings like the shinobi that he is. It would attract unwanted attention from the people who probably did not witness feats that were normal in his world. So, he could either walk to the docks or use transportation. In order to familiarize himself with this new world, Itachi decided to choose the latter option. What did the teenager earlier said? Cabs? The yellow metal wagons that were abundant in the city? They seem to be a common mode of transportation here in New York.

He stepped onto the street and flagged down the yellow automobiles, it took a while before one stopped for him. One learned a lot by observing and imitating people. From his walk around the city, Itachi learned quite a few things such as opening a car.

"To the docks, please."

Minutes later, he found himself in the docks, surrounded by warehouses, alone and penniless. He saw his crows perched on the roofs, at least they were smart enough not to carelessly attack the woman. Who knows what could've happened to them. One of the corvids flew to him and Itachi reached out his arm, and the bird perched on it.

"(Are you sure?)", Itachi asked.

The crow nodded, as though it could understand Itachi's words, which of course it did. It would be poor for a summoned creature to not understand the summoner.

"(Okay. You may go now)," the ex-nukenin instructed.

The bird in his arm cawed loudly, the other members of the murder he summoned flew close to Itachi and surrounded him as though to comfort him. "(I'll be alright. Please don't worry about me. Please send my regards to Yatagarasu-sama)."

The crows around him poofed out of existence.

Now, what to do. He scanned around the area and found he was alone. There were a lot of cargo vans that were stacked around, he could certainly use those to his advantage. He channeled chakra to his legs and jumped to the highest of the stacked cargo vans, he placed a subtle genjutsu around himself to not be noticed immediately. It was relatively low-ranking but it works effectively. He ran through the cargo vans until he reached a warehouse that the crows reported to have seen the suspicious woman.

He crouched down and observed. He extended his chakra sense and sensed a two dozen or so people inside the warehouse. Now, how to sneak in without arousing suspicion. His sharp eyes (thank gods, he's not half-blind anymore) spotted a broken window almost near the roof. He jumped down the cargo van and deftly ran to the shadowy side of the building and sped up to the broken window. What Itachi saw surprised him.

There were at least two dozen women in the building, some of them appeared to be younger than Sasuke. There were at least a dozen or so computers in there, and what Itachi saw disgusted him.

The children (because there was no other way to describe them) stripped their clothes sensually and touched themselves in areas they shouldn't touch. The suspicious woman watched contentedly on the side. Some of the other children were crying and the woman would approach them and coax them to strip and touch themselves. He could see other girls whimpering on the floor beaten black and blue. Others were sleeping on potato sacks. Itachi could feel the bile rising in his throat. Even in a different world, scum like this still existed.

There were guards, men with firearms strapped on their legs, that in Itachi's eyes were amateurs. He used the darkness of the barely-lit warehouse to his advantage and crept down from the broken window. He slowly and sneakily as possible went near to the woman, crouching down from the shadows in order to find the perfect timing.

One, two, three... and Itachi pulled the woman's arms tightly and breaking it, the sharp sound of shattered bones cracked through the silence. The woman almost screamed but the Uchiha already clamped his hands over her mouth. "Don't scream," he threatened.

The woman's eyes were wide with fear. Were those falling feathers? It was falling feathers, she felt her eyes drop and she fell to the ground, asleep. Itachi dropped the woman's sleeping form gently. The Temple of Nirvana had a widespread effect, and soon the armed men that surrounded the vicinity and the naked girls also dropped unconscious. Itachi edged to closer to one of the sleeping men. He snatched away the man's firearm. He was curious about guns. A weapon incorporating a metal tube from which bullets, shells, or other missiles are propelled by explosive force, typically making a characteristic loud, sharp noise. They were unlike what Itachi was used to seeing and using.

Itachi found a rope after searching through the crates along with inappropriate carnal objects. He gathered up the armed men and the suspicious woman and bound them in the ropes.

Later that day, the NYPD detained members of a gang-operated prostitution ring who were dropped at their doorstep like mail and a certain Itachi Uchiha found a new objective in this new world.

 **I know it's impossible to learn a language that quick but let's pretend it happened, okay? I mean it's Itachi he's like the Gary Stu of Naruto. Anyways, this chapter highlights Itachi's background to this world and his motivation to start his vigilantism.**

 **Also, what do you think Itachi's main philosophy in life is? I already mentioned that he's an existentialist, but I can't be sure. I see results pointing out to Phenomenology and Utilitarianism, but most point out to Existentialism. (Maybe I'll feature him reading Kafka and Camus in the next chapter haha). If somebody could explain these to me? I'm not a Philosophy major, but I'm trying to get down to Itachi's mindset, he's a complex character after all.** **Also, I'm gonna skim over his background in the next chapter. By the fourth chapter, we will be back in regularly schedules programming.**

 **Remember what I said about reviews, I wouldn't mind if it's just one word or an essay as long as you're able to give your feedback to me and to this story. Reviews motivate me to write. So,**

 **REVIEW. REVIEW. REVIEW. REVIEW. REVIEW. REVIEW. REVIEW. REVIEW. REVIEW. REVIEW. REVIEW. REVIEW. REVIEW**

 **Until next time!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Ohmygahd! 21 reviews? I'm so glad, you guys! I'm so sorry that this chapter got delayed. Updates will be sporadic at best, but I'll try my best to write future chapters even though *shudders* school is my top priority right now. This chapter is a bit filler-y, but I would appreciate it if you guys would leave your thoughts, reviews and suggestions in the box down below.**

 **Big thanks to LadyKG for beta-ing my work. You rock!**

Hello-emphasis/ flashbacks

'Hello'- thought

"Hello"- normal speech

"(Hello)"- Japanese

* * *

 _Do you know what I was, how I lived? You know_

 _what despair is; then_

 _winter should have meaning for you._

 _I did not expect to survive,_

 _earth suppressing me. I didn't expect_

 _to waken again, to feel_

 _in damp earth my body_

 _able to respond again, remembering_

 _after so long how to open again_

 _in the cold light_

 _of earliest spring-_

 _afraid, yes, but among you again_

 _crying yes risk joy_

 _in the raw wind of the new world._

 _-Snowdrops, Louise Glück_

Itachi Uchiha sighed.

He twirled the marker in his hands and stretched out his arms to cross out today's date. This day officially marked his first year in this new, strange world and like the good ninja he was, Itachi adapted.

For the first few weeks in the new world, Itachi lived with Daphne. The prodigy was really glad of the girl's hospitality and kindness. The world needed more people that would help others without hesitation. He needed to repay Daphne. Stealing was out of the question, he didn't want to commit any more crimes especially since he shoplifted at a thrift store that looked like it was already falling of debt. He found out through his research that this world has an entirely different educational system from the one in the Shinobi lands. These people do not train their children to be killers, after all. He has the choice to go to college, get a degree, find a decent job with a decent pay while continuing his vigilantism. He immediately shot down the idea, he was basically an "alien" to this world. Plus, all his paperwork was forged, if he would enroll in a higher education, he needed to find a local college that will not check his background. With these factors in mind he ditched the idea of college and concentrated on finding work instead.

Itachi didn't want to kill even though it is what he does best. He did not want to work or be an on-hire mercenary to do other people's selfish biddings. Being an assassin was not an option. He once thought of joining a circus and showing his skills in shurikenjutsu or be a pyro performer with his Katon ninjutsu, but realized that these noble arts were one of the only few things that his clan basically left to him when he massacred them. It would be a waste if he just used them for entertainment like those fakers in Reality TV. So what could he do? Simple, find a job that did not have too many requirements, and which wasn't too difficult since Daphne basically helped him.

In the end, he got this job in a coffee shop owned by one of Daphne's friend's acquaintance, which Itachi gladly accepted, he has no choice but to, and Itachi felt the need to be thankful that so far nothing ugly or unlucky has happened to him.

He was trained in how to concoct coffee mixtures and brew tea properly without burning the water. Itachi also learned how to bake pastries and make cakes. Itachi learned quickly. Itachi loved learning, he made it an endeavor to not use his kekkei genkai in everything he does. his prodigy status wasn't only because of his early awakening of the sharingan, after all. Many an Uchiha fell to the trappings of their own bloodline making them wrongly arrogant of their visual prowess, believing their clan to be superior because of the Sharingan which caused an unspoken feud with the Hyuuga and ultimately lead to the clan's downfall. He was particularly proud of this achievement. He finally had skills that was other than killing others. Back when he was in the Akatsuki, when he and Kisame were still partners, the shark man remarked how Itachi loved using genjutsu on his enemies. "You rely too much on your illusions", he said, "You don't like killing, do you Itachi-san?"

The Uchiha was simply grunted in response at that time, but Kisame was right. Itachi hated useless bloodshed and killing in general. Itachi's pacifistic tendencies was his weakness. Sometimes, just sometimes, Itachi thinks being a shinobi was an ill-suited for him. It would be more fitting, if say, he would have become a medic-nin, but he remembered that his intention was to _stop_ the spilling of blood.

One thing that scared Itachi, and _scared_ being the proper word to use, was the fangirls. He didn't even know how he acquired them. As far as he was concerned, he was a plain barista in one of the many coffee shops in New York. One day, he just arrived in Espresso Express with a gaggle of girls not so subtly glancing at him and taking pictures of him. One of them bravely asked what kind of shampoo he used which baffled Itachi. In fact, he was so shocked (though the reaction was not visible) that he just stared at her for a few seconds before asking what her order was. Fangirls were the bane of an Uchiha's existence; almost like they were cursed with them.

A few days after he dismantled the gang-run child prostitution ring, he searched for ways to be able to hide his identity if he will ever continue getting rid of the world's scum. No world didn't take a liking for vigilantes, even though some people would disagree with him. The long-haired Uchiha found out about the internet which is both intriguing and disgusting. Intriguing, because all the information and knowledge one can acquire with only a click was staggering. Communication was much easier as long as one has a computer. Disgusting, because like all things, people find ways to trick other people and use this system to commit malicious acts. Scamming, pornography, et cetera.

It was through the internet that he found out how to make a mask. It was different from the one he wore in his former life because the one he made was black and styled like a crow's. It kind of resembled the masks worn by plague doctors back in the 14th century except that the beak part was pointed downwards to conceal his mouth. The mask itself was made of plaster; he thought of using ceramic first but realizing that getting ceramic would be difficult, he opted for more accessible options. Funnily enough, he ended up in a cosplay help webpage when he was searching for ways how to make a mask. Cosplay was another thing that Itachi found bizarre although he quite liked it because it showed how passionate people were in their own art. His mind thought about Sasori and Deidara for a moment and hoped that their souls were resting in peace. His clothes while doing his _other_ work was fairly plain. He wore a mesh armor underneath a simple dark blue shirt and similarly colored pants with his Shinobi sandals. His outfit was the same as the one he wore when he was still in the Akatsuki except that he had a simple black jacket instead of a cloak covering his attire.

Obtaining weapons was another problem he encountered early on. He did not want to attract the wrong sort of attention by using his elemental jutsus. He could always use genjutsu since the effect is more of a mental one, although one could still report what they saw, nobody would believe in them since genjutsu attacks the flow of the cerebral nervous system, therefore, affecting all of the five senses, so he could always use his illusionary techniques. Taijutsu seems to be the only favorable option, but Itachi would feel more confident if he has his weapons. In the end, he bought some good quality scrap metal from junk shops and made the weapons with his own hands. It was tough even with the myriad of Katon jutsus he used to forge the various sharp objects.

Housing…well, he was basically homeless. Itachi did not want to freeload with Daphne forever, so he searched for an apartment in New York…which is a daunting task in itself. By the end of day one of apartment hunting, Itachi felt like capturing a jinchuuriki would be much easier. Everything was so damn expensive! His a little-bit-higher than minimum wage could not afford the costly living in New York. He did not have high standards for a place that he would be living, half of his life was spent on travelling a lot and staying in crappy ryokan and inns. Itachi was already familiar with the feeling of having mice and cockroaches as sleeping buddies. In the third week of his apartment hunting (he was tired at this point), he was able to "convince" (read: brainwash with the Sharingan) one of the owners of cheaper apartments to let him live in the abandoned rooftop room of his building. It was only a mere 16 square meters of space. The room was dirty and did not look livable at all. The floor had mold in it, the mint green paint was peeling and everything in the room- the small fridge (that probably didn't work), the square table, the single plastic chair, the rickety bed frame-was cramped. There was a bathroom and a nice view from the window, that was the only thing that made Itachi slightly uplifted.

'Apartment hunting in this city needs to be an S-class mission', he thought.

He hated having to control the landlord with his Sharingan. Leaving people without the rationality to decide for themselves reminded him of the time where he had no choice but to massacre his clan.

With the use of Kage Bunshin, he was able to make the place a little bit more livable. Don't get him wrong. The floor still had mold and the paint job needs to be more decent, but he was able to put the table and plastic chair by the window and bought a mattress. Unfortunately, the bed frame broke and Itachi had to put his newly-bought mattress to the moldy floor which he didn't mind much. The only immaculate part of his new place was the kamidana he made with his first pay at the coffee shop. The kamidana was the one he used to worship the gods and he would never fail to commemorate the dead.

The Uchiha also learned of this world's history. One can gain useful insight about the future if you studied the past. America, the country where he landed, was apparently built from the backs of slavery of Africans. All because of skin color, some people thought they were superior than others going as far to resort their God into their prejudice. Another thing that disturbed Itachi was that there was a genocide of the Natives committed by the colonists. There used to be 10 million Natives living in these lands, but by the turn of the previous century, the number dwindled down phenomenally to 300,000. He also read about the so-called World Wars. The first one was large enough to be called "War to End All Wars" but the second one had a death count that made him queasy.

Millions of Jews were killed in concentration camps but not before treating them horribly. The accounts of Holocaust survivors made Itachi nauseous and he wondered why he read them in the first place. It seems that cruelty knows no bounds. Their body parts were used as "souvenirs" by the Nazi soldiers; the victims' skins were used to make lampshade. In one of the camps alone, more than a million were gassed to death.

While people here did not have chakra, they compensated it with their phenomenal technology. Their wars were not fought by spewing fireballs or projecting hologram warriors or emerging forests in the middle of the battlefield, their wars were fought with guns, missiles, bombs, planes, helicopters, et cetera. Speaking of bombs, the Uchiha found it offputting thinking about the Atomic bomb. Such a destructive weapon that could cause widespread devastation in lives and properties was only used twice. It was a crude way to stop a war. The image of the one-legged torii gate made Itachi's heart sink to his stomach.

Another thing that made Itachi curious was this person called "Captain America". Apparently, the USO used this man as some kind of propaganda to boost the morale of soldiers. Steve Rogers went down to the memory of people as the first "superhero" which proved to Itachi that people here were as capable of great feats even without chakra, which made them dangerous. There was a lot of information concerning Captain Rogers, but Itachi had to filter out what was the truth. Captain America's life was highly fictionalized in some aspects, especially his love life. There were comics, lunch boxes, trading cards and other objects featuring the man; in short, he was a national icon. Itachi wanted to meet the man who went from being a sickly asthmatic kid from Brooklyn to being one of the most well-known figures of 20th century.

Finding out information about the Captain's enemies was a more difficult task. When he would go to websites or books it was only referred to as "Nazi Deep Science Division". It made people to look at it as something under Hitler, but Itachi deduced that it is not. With his keen observation skills, he managed to deduce that the two were entirely different things. The Nazi wanted a pure Aryan race; this "Nazi Deep Science Division" wanted World Domination. Not much different to when one looks at it.

Itachi dressed himself in a grey long-sleeved shirt, blue jeans, and grey rubber shoes. The necklace he always wore hung from his neck, he fiddled the necklace for a moment. The necklace was something Shisui gave him in his 13th birthday and the three beads always held a deep significance for the shinobi. He went to the small bathroom that occupied almost half of his room and faced the mirror. His reflection did not change at all. Same hair, same eyes, same face. He grabbed a comb and brushed it through his hair. Should he get a haircut? Nah, he liked his hair long. His mother encouraged him to let his hair grow when he was younger. He clipped a hairpin to both sides of his face to clear his bangs away from his face.

He left his room and locked the door behind him. He was in the rooftop and the sight of early morning New York stayed the same. Itachi will never get used to it. He jogged down the 6-floor stairs and said goodbye to the landlord who was drinking a mug of coffee. He went out and greeted his neighbors who would dump their garbage.

"Where you going, pretty boy?", one of his more annoying neighbors who went by the name Michael, asked.

"None of your business. Good morning", Itachi said as he turned swiftly and started walking towards the direction of his destination.

Forty minutes of walking later, he reached a complex in front of a Catholic church. He was allowed entrance by the guard. Itachi went inside the complex. There was a large courtyard and a set of similarly styled houses. Itachi went into one of the houses bearing the name, "Saint Agnes Orphanage".

"Good morning, Sister Barbara. I hope I'm not too early for you", greeted Itachi to a woman who sat on a desk wearing a nun's habit.

The nun smiled amiably at the Uchiha. "No, no, no, Mister Uchiha. It is never too late or too early when it comes to helping us. Today is a special day for one of our children after all."

"Yes, that is why I came early. May I use the kitchen, Sister Barbara?", asked Itachi.

"Of course, you can", replied the sister.

"Thank you", he said with a slight bow.

Itachi went to the kitchen, it was fairly large and had a lot of old equipment. 'Typical', he thought. The orphanage depends on the donations of the churchgoers and beneficiaries after all, but at least it had all the materials Itachi needed. He withdrew one of the many cookbooks in the library shelves and leafed through the pages to his desired dish, it was a simple chocolate cake.

He grabbed the ingredients necessary from the pantry and laid them down on the kitchen counter: butter, eggs, sugar flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, some vanilla and some milk. He also got the mixer and the cake mold out of the cabinet and heated the oven.

The former Uchiha heir did what the instructions told him to do. He measured the ingredients with sickly perfection and weighed the flour and sugar up to three significant digits. If one could see Itachi right now, one would say he is a perfectionist, which is not far from truth. He mixed the ingredients together in separate bowls and combined them in the end, he continued to mix them until the batter is smooth. He placed the batter into the greased cake mold and put it into the oven. While he was waiting for the cake to fully bake, he made the chocolate frosting. He did so by mixing together melted chocolate, vanilla, butter, milk and sugar until it was smooth. After thirty minutes, Itachi got the cake out of the oven and let it cool over a wire rack. When the cake was fully cooled, he spread the frosting on the top of the cake and around it. Content and happy with his work, Itachi stuck some candles he bought on the cake and lit the wicks with a lighter he always brought with him. Itachi put the cake on a plate and held it with both of his hands.

He snuck out of the kitchen, his footsteps not making a sound. He silently went to the direction of the orphanage's dining hall. He opened the door slightly and saw the interior filled with balloons and a large sign saying, "Happy Birthday". The children who wore cheap party hats inside were sitting with the nuns, so the children were well-behaved. Sitting in the front table was a girl who looked around five or six years old with mousy brown hair, brown eyes and sickly pale complexion.

Itachi burst into the door dramatically, holding the cake in one hand, and said, "Happy Birthday, Clio!"

Clio's face lit up with a huge smile. She got off her chair and blurred past the room and hugged Itachi, wrapping her skinny arms around Itachi's waist and burying her head into his stomach.

"Big brother Itachi! You came", Clio gushed out happily and let go of Itachi.

"Clio!", one of the nuns hissed loudly. "That is inappropriate behavior for a girl!"

"It's fine, Sister Lucia", Itachi tried to placate the nun. The shinobi bent down to girl's level and presented the cake to her. "Happy Birthday, Clio"

The girl looked like she was about to explode from excitement. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

She jumped around happily, ignoring the glares of the nuns planted at her. Itachi took her small hands and said, "Go back to your seat, okay? We should start the party soon."

She answered a big "YES!" and promptly skipped over to her former seat.

One of the fairly younger sisters stood up. "Let us pray."

After a short prayer, the simple birthday party started. One of the nun offered Itachi a seat, which he accepted with thanks. He picked up some food served from the table and ate them contentedly. Clio was one of the children Itachi held a bias. The girl is suffering from vasculitis, which badly reminded Itachi of his own disease back then. Despite having only five years to live, she was a cheerful, bright and loud child who never let the strict demeanor of the nuns get her happiness. Itachi knew the girl could live longer if the orphanage had proper funding, so Itachi contributed the little that he could towards the girl's medications and recovery.

Itachi, in his former life, would never have volunteered in an orphanage. (Just making orphans, probably. Considering what he did to Sasuke.) But when he first landed in this world, he thought that he should do something worthwhile. Of course, being a vigilante counts as one, but Itachi felt like he needs to make the most of his second chance. So, he decided to volunteer in an orphanage, to be specific, in St. Agnes Orphanage, a church-run orphanage located inside New York City.

Children were just too innocent, too sweet. Itachi treasures innocence, having his own stripped too early when his father showed him the horrors of war. He did not regret having to grow up too fast, but he certainly regretted the loss of Sasuke's innocence and naivety when he massacred the clan. He wants the children in the orphanage know that they'll be loved, that they are loved. That no matter what, they'll be okay despite the world being a cruel place. He wants these little tykes to grow up as good, strong people. Of course, he doesn't approve some of the nuns' methods such as instilling the fear of God in their young minds. In Itachi's opinion, the nuns should give more emphasis to God's love and his forgiveness rather than his wrath, but he was in the position to stop them. So, he let the kids do whatever he wants with him and not letting the nuns ruin their fun.

Not long after, Itachi found himself helping the nuns clean up the plates and bringing the dirty cutlery to the washing area.

"Let us take care of this, Mr. Uchiha. You can play with the children", said Sister Fiona, the fairly young nun with golden hair and deep blue eyes.

Itachi did what as he told and went to the courtyard where the children were playing tag. Some of them stopped playing and looked up at him with eagerness. "Itachi! Can you show us your ninja moves?", one of the children, Samuel, asked.

The ex-criminal beckoned the child to come. The kid did as so and looked up at Itachi with shining eyes. Itachi smiled and brought up his hand, his index finger and thumb pointing forward, and poked Samuel on his forehead. "Sorry Samuel, maybe next time."

The kid staggered back, holding his hurt forehead. "That hurts!"

Itachi smiled at Samuel. Another girl tugged his pants and Itachi gazed at her. The girl was Delia, she is a and mute girl who liked to play with Itachi's hair. The shinobi sat down cross-legged as the little girl tugged his locks. Delia was joined by other girls who also helped in braiding his hair. Five minutes later, Itachi sported a double Dutch braid. He inspected what he looked like in his smartphone's* front camera which he may or may not have stolen from a smug businessman in the Financial District.

"It's beautiful, I like it", Itachi said to the girl.

Delia had a mega-watt grin on her face and Itachi patted the girl's soft hair. "You look pretty! Big bro!", Clio yelled even though she was close to the former Akatsuki member.

The Uchiha put a finger over his lips, signing to the girl to keep quiet. Clio pouted. Itachi thought the birthday girl was cute and cannot resist to ruffle her mousy brown hair. "Take care of yourself, okay? Obey the nuns and drink your medicine."

"Awww…I'm fine, okay? Don't leacture all the time, makes you like the nuns and like an old man", the girl said brightly.

"Hn", Itachi grunted.

Silence hung for a moment. Delia was sticking purple wildflowers in Itachi's hair, which the mute girl removed when she did not like what it looked like.

"Shouldn't you be going?", Clio suddenly said.

Itachi looked at the position of the sun. "Oh, yes. I might be late. It was fun being with you all. Happy Birthday, Clio."

The Uchiha departed the orphanage after he bade goodbye to the Sisters. As he walked his way to his work, Itachi thought about all the things in his life that had changed. 'It is good change', he thought. He was an imperfect world, yes, but it was a quieter life that he was leading. A life where he can help people with his innate compassion.

Too bad, his peace would not last for long.

*I know smartphones did not exist in 2010 (present year in this chapter), but this is the MCU we're talking about, they were making Super Soldiers with magic German potions in the 1940's, so let us pretend that smartphones exist, okay?

* * *

 **Guys, remember what I said about reviews, they encourage and motivate authors to write more. So, type your thoughts about the chapter in the box down below :))))**

 **REVIEW.**

 **REVIEW.**

 **REVIEW.**

 **REVIEW.**

 **REVIEW.**


	4. Chapter 4

**35 reviews? For a single chapter? The support is staggering. THANK YOU THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Although yes, not all of them are positive, I still appreciate those guys who tell me my story was bad and would never read it again. It kinda hurts, but okay, I cannot make everyone happy.**

 **I'm really sorry it took** **me four months to update this story. Writing is hard. On the positive note, I maintained my 99 grade in Gen Math and I won a contest in Poetry! You guys won't understand it though since it's written in Filipino. Without further ado, here's the chapter.**

 **WARNINGS: OOCness, bad fight scenes, butchering of mythology**

 **Thanks to Lady KG for beta reading. I appreciate your help.**

Now, after so much solitude,

death doesn't frighten me,

not yours, not mine either.

And those words, _the last time_ ,

have no power over me. I know

intense love always leads to mourning.

-Metamorphosis, Louise Glück

Itachi looked at the empty box of Pocky with such longing in his eyes. Oh, such a thing to mourn! The heavenly goodness of chocolate-covered biscuit sticks was gone! All gone! Of course, it went to his stomach and his digestive system would process the Pocky. Distributing the sweet's nonexistent nutrients to his cells, which may or may not cause an early onset of Diabetes that would be the most likely cause of natural death (now that his autoimmune disease eating away his lungs was gone). The pleasure found while eating Pocky was surely precious but ephemeral. There is bliss to be found in a box of Pocky, bliss comparable to the high-strung ecstasy of star-crossed lovers.

He sighed, there was no use in mourning things that will surely be gone. All things that exist are temporary and meet the same fate of deterioration in the end.

The late spring night breeze blew through the former Akatsuki member's hair. Itachi closed his eyes and let the city noise and the vastness of it sink into his being.

Existence is unbearable. Man has to live in constant burden of having to depend on their own pliable wills and the unsureness of the human reason in order to get through their puny lives. The enormous responsibility of having to make a choice to determine the course of one's fleeting life puts man in great agony and in great anxiety.

Dangling his legs over one of the skyscrapers growing like mushrooms in New York, the long-haired Uchiha wondered if people realized their insignificance in a greater existence that is the universe. There are a million of stars in the sky and even more bodies of heavenly light scattered all throughout the cosmos; stars, galaxies, planets, nebulae, comets, meteors. Earth itself is just a big chunk of rock rotating dumbly in a universe of blindly swirling atoms.

"Itachi-chan! Itachi-chan!" A particular cawing noise caught his attention and Itachi broke out of his reverie. A black blur of feathers was cannonballing towards him, which slowed down as it moved nearer to the ex-criminal. A single black crow hovered in front of Itachi. "Some wannabe sons-of-bitches are robbing a bank by the Third Avenue."

"Don't be crude, Kurogane. It's disrespectful to their mothers", Itachi reprimanded lightly. "Good wombs hath born bad sons." He muttered under his breath.

"Ya should go now or else they'll be gone", the bird said.

Itachi nodded in understanding. "Tell the others to go back, you should rest for the night."

The bird would've huffed if it was human, but all Kurogane could do was glare at his summoner. "Why don't you do it yourself?" The crow suggested.

"Please", the clan-killer commanded.

"Alright, alright, 'Tachi-chan. I'll go tell the others to get back", Kurogane said, sending a mental message to the other corvids to go back to the Summoning Realm.

Meanwhile, the kin-slayer took a deep breath and stood up. Looking down, his new, clear-as-day eyes spotted not a single strand of hair from any man or woman. He raised his arm to don his black crow mask, put a foot the edge of the building, turned around, and arched his back, letting his body free fall. He could feel the pull of gravity greedily taking hold and his own body accelerating towards the ground. He changed his position so that he would be "standing" vertically in the air.

'NOW!' He thought.

His hands formed a single seal and his body dispersed into a murder of crows. Anybody in the vicinity would've wondered what crows were doing at this time of the night. More puzzling would be the fact how jungle crows ended up in a metropolis like New York.

* * *

"Hurry up!" Yelled one of the robbers to his fellow. His gaze turned disappointed as he watched as his accomplice hauled a heavy sack. "What did I say? Don't bring in the heavy stuff like those damn gold bars or the cops will catch us! We're just here for the cash!"

There were four of them in total. The first who stood as the leader was a black-haired Caucasian man with a five o' clock shadow an abstract tattoo running on his forearm. The second one, who was pulling the sack of gold bars was a portly middle-aged man. The third man was a Black with his hair in short dread locks and the last was a woman with dirty blonde hair and dishwater blue eyes. All of them were wearing NYPD uniforms. They were outside a big-name bank and were heading towards their getaway vehicle parked in one of the alleys.

"It's these damn gold bars that have a real value", argued the Black man.

The leader frowned for a moment and considered the situation. "Alright, bring those in."

The portly man was struggling with carrying the sack, so the two other males helped him haul the loot. "Hurry up, the police may have been alerted by the bank tellers or the guy with the freaky mask will come." The woman said with a hint if impatience and nervousness in her voice.

"I prefer if you would not call my mask freaky", a deep, baritone voice suddenly joined in.

The lone woman yelped and a shuriken whizzed pass her face, embedding itself on the wall and leaving a shallow cat on her cheek. Another flying star flew towards her, this time on the other side of her face but it did not injure her. She blinked, and suddenly it became clear that she was trapped, a spider-web piano wires surrounded her and she could not escape. She stepped back and the wires clinked ominously and reformed until the wires seized her body and tied her down, her hands bound. She struggled by wiggling her body, but the wires dug deeper into her body.

"H-help!"

"Rhea!" The Black man, ran towards her, but a murder of crows blocked his path. Eventually, the crows converged together and became a viscous-like black mass until the crows' feathers coalesced to form the shape of a man. A man in a black jacket and blue pants appeared, his face was covered with a mask that resembled the same birds.

"What the fuck?", the man yelled in disbelief. He crouched and tried to throw a punch to the masked figure which the latter easily dodged. Itachi grabbed the man's thrusted arm and twisted it with enough force to break the bones of the ulna, an audible crack was heard and the Black man cried out in pain. "You fuckin' bastard" growled the man. His single, functional hand grabbed a gun from its holster and pointed it to the vigilante. Eerie, red eyes glowed behind the black mask and the man started to shake uncontrollably, eyes wide open. The commas in his enemy's red eyes spinned in a hypnotic fashion and the bank robber could not help but stare at the red eyes. "Sleep", a rather monotonous command came out of Itachi's mouth.

"Shit!" The Caucasian man slipped out. "We need to get out of here!"

"I'm afraid I'll not let you go easily", Itachi said as he stood on top of the robbers' getaway vehicle.

"Fuck off!", yelled the leader as he grabbed his own gun and started shooting at the Uchiha. High-speed vector projectiles fell useless to the power of the Sharingan. Needless to say, Itachi dodged all the bullets coming his way by deftly avoiding them. He launched himself to the ground, crouched low, and kicked the White man's trousered legs which threw the robber out of balance. While his body was nearing the ground, Itachi took advantage of the man's speed as he was about to hit the ground to kick him in the solar plexus. The man flew to the wall, which created a small, near-unnoticeable crater on the wall, created solely by the velocity of the man sailing through the air courtesy of Itachi's kick.

The leader was unconscious once he finally hit the ground. Three down, one to go. The masked man turned his red gaze to the remaining member of the small group. The portly, middle-aged man raised his hands in a universal "I surrender" language. "P-p-please don't hurt me", the sole, conscious one of the robbers pleaded.

The masked Itachi walked closer to the man, his long, evening shadow almost like the seams of a Grim Reaper's cloak that wrapped the night and the void at its edges. "Fine, then." His red eyes spun once again and the portly man fell unconscious as he gazed onto the vigilante's mesmerizing eyes.

Itachi walked out of the scene with four unconscious bank robbers all tied up with piano wires. The NYPD would recognize the "gift" as another present from the Crow.

As the blinking blue-and red lights lit up the crime scene, some nameless field agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. was among the cops, and gathering as much information as he could regarding the vigilante.

* * *

With a Meisagakure no Jutsu, veiling his body and countenance, Itachi leaped through New York's roofs and buildings with relative ease. Trees were much easier to an average shinobi, but these skyscrapers and concrete structures were not much of a challenge to a shinobi prodigy like Itachi. He had heard of parkour, and he may or may not have been practicing his skills as a shinobi in the guise of free running.

He reached his apartment in no time, he landed gracefully on the rooftop of the building and walked nonchalantly towards his unit.

The seals he placed around his small room dropped at his presence and Itachi opened the door to his apartment and turned on the lights. Only a TV was added in his bare necessities. It has been a month since Clio's birthday and nothing much has changed except for the fact that Itachi could now braid his hair by copying video tutorials. The reason why he always wore his hair in a ponytail was because of the practicality of the hairstyle. Although, his hair creased in the area where the hair tie was holding his hair so he tried to style his hair and although some see it as effeminate or even gay, it's not like Itachi cares.

He hung up his black jacket, and grabbed the remote. He turned on his small television and the sound of the news anchor's voice blared in the apartment.

" _Multibillionaire weapons manufacturer and Stark Industries CEO, Tony Stark continues to be missing. He was last seen testing his new Jericho missile in Afghanistan and is suspected to be kidnapped by one of the insurgents in the area…"_

A small frown crossed Itachi's face. Like all living in America, he was familiar with the name Tony Stark. While he did not outright hate the man, he held a certain dislike to the weapons manufacturer and America in general. In his opinion, Stark has a naïve perspective about peace. His "peace" is basically being the biggest bully in the playground; having the bigger guns and scaring the living hell out of the enemies of America. Yes, this world is not perfect like his own, but people like Stark are the reason why insurgents keep crawling out of the rubble no matter how many missiles you launch at them. Peace through fear is not peace at all. Maybe the Uchiha was a little more idealistic than necessary and his idealistic tendencies may be one of the reasons Danzo was able to manipulate him into killing his ow clan. Itachi did not agree to Stark's beliefs, not to mention that Stark was egocentric and Itachi tried to tolerate the existence of such people.

He listened with one ear open as the news continued reporting on the case of the missing Tony Stark. Deciding that he heard enough, Itachi turned the TV off and proceeded to the bathroom to take a nice, warm half-bath before sleeping.

* * *

Itachi's nights were delightfully dreamless.

Yes, a stray thought would surface on the waters of his mind sometimes. Mostly lingering feelings, old memories, and recurring nightmares of his kinsmen's blood on his hands or Shisui's rapidly falling figure towards the rushing currents of the Naka River or him killing Sasuke, but thankfully, most nights were blissfully blank.

This was not one of those nights. As he succumbed to the deeper throes of slumber, he grew aware of his surroundings and slowly relaxed. Endless whorls of grey mist surrounded him like smoke clinging to a polluted city. A grand bridge with no beginning or no end floated above him, going from and going to nowhere and everywhere at once. His eyes could make out a distant Torii gate colored traditional red. Around him, the horizon spread in all direction towards infinity. His feet were above still grey water, so still, one could mistake his or her self standing on pure silver and not liquid water.

"Good to see you alive, Uchiha Itachi", a female voice interrupted his observation.

The kinslayer turned towards the source of the voice, and out of the opaque grey mist, a woman appeared. Almost immediately, the mist cleared and heavenly light emanating from the woman bathed the surroundings with her otherworldly presence.

"Amaterasu-omikami", Itachi said in recognition. He dropped to one knee and bowed his head.

The goddess's mouth raised to a small smile. "Rise, Uchiha Itachi", the goddess commanded. Itachi stood up, but still kept his head bowed.

Amaterasu frowned and said, "Don't keep your head bowed like that. As our champion, you have the right to look at our faces."

He lifted his head and looked on her face. The woman, rather, the goddess was undoubtedly one of the most beautiful females Itachi encountered on his relatively short life. Her features could only be described by the word "perfect", from the slight upturn of her delicate nose to the light gold undertone of her ivory skin. Long, charcoal black hair cascaded down from her shoulders, down her back and pooled on her feet. Her eyes were two miniature suns, blazing gold in color. She wore a traditional kimono colored red and white with gold linings that hugged her slender and tall frame perfectly. A magatama necklace hung from her neck.

It was not Itachi's first time to encounter the sun goddess, but he kept his head bowed as a sign of respect and formality. The long-haired Uchiha recognized the place of his dreamscape. The bridge that floated above them is Ame-no uki-Hashi or the Floating Bridge of Heaven, leading to the home of the kami, Takama-ga-Hara or the Plain of High Heaven.

"You might be wondering why I am the one talking to you in your dreams and not my brother who you usually meet", the goddess said.

"Please tell me you're not skiving off your duties. It must be daytime in Japan", Itachi said dryly.

"Heh, was that a joke, Itachi?", asked the goddess.

"If you take it as one", answered the Uchiha.

"Damn it. I lost the bet", muttered Amaterasu.

Itachi tilted his head and asked curiously, "Is it against your brothers again? What were you betting on?"

"Yes, the other gods are too afraid to bet against the three of us and it's about whether or not you will make a joke having been in another dimension for a year", replied Amaterasu.

"Ah", Itachi enunciated. Apparently, at this point of his life, he is the subject of bets between deities. What a cruel irony. It was almost like saying Fate was toying with him.

Hopefully, the gods aren't too messy with their challenges as they used to be. He'd heard about the one time the storm god, Susano'o-no-Mikoto challenged Amaterasu, the story was long and basically a glorified sibling rivalry, but Itachi remembered Amaterasu still being disappointed at her brother for hurling a flayed pony at the sun goddess's loom that she hid in a cave for a very long time.

"You may be wondering why I pulled your consciousness in here", Amaterasu began. Itachi nodded. She continued, "We know that you have been waiting for a sign or an omen for more than a year, but we were curious what would you do without our guidance."

"You have been doing good, or at least better than what you have done in your home dimension. Who would've expected? Ichizokugoroshi no Itachi baking cakes and cookies for poor orphans in New York City and object of fantasy for coffee-obsessed teenage girls", the goddess snickered.

"Hn", Itachi grunted. He knew that being blatantly disrespectful to a goddess would most likely end up in smiting, but from what Itachi knew, the Shinto gods were not fond of smiting, especially their champions.

"Anyways, as you may or may not have expected that rowdy no-good raggabrash that calls himself as my brother is off picking fights again. His wife is very exasperated.", Amaterasu explained the absence of Susano'o.

Usually, Itachi would find himself meeting the storm god. The tempestuous god of the storms and the seas even gave Itachi his sword, the Totsuka-no-Tsurugi, to equip his Susano'o (the Mangekyō Sharingan Technique) with.

"Back to why you are here. You're supposed to go to the Pure Land but we pitied you. Me and my brothers, we're undeniably biased when it comes to you. With me giving you my mirror, Susano'o giving you his sword and the technique named after Tsukuyomi being your most-often used one, we felt like you deserved another chance at life", she began.

"But why?", Itachi asked. He wanted to rest in peace after his very tiresome life as a shinobi. He wanted to see his parents again and ask them for forgiveness, even after all this time.

"We know you wanted to rest, for life to cease because even though you only lived for merely 21 years, your burden was very heavy, but most of all, we cannot let our Champion die, with both the Totsuka-no-Tsurugi and Yata-no-Kagami tied to your soul, we cannot let some worthy investment like you to perish, so we decided to put you in one of the Dimensions where we have influence in", explained the goddess.

Itachi was silent, the gods saw him as an investment that's why they decided to give him their heavenly weapons.

"Things are just beginning to stir, Itachi", the goddess continued. "We need to maintain our foothold over the mortal realm and we need you, our Champion. Will you be willing to serve us with all your strength and all your might?"

Itachi dropped down to one knee and lowered his head, "Yes, Amaterasu-omikami."

"Stand, Uchiha Itachi", the sun deity ordered.

Itachi stood. "We restored your vision and your health as a reward of your unwavering kindness and these may help protect the peace you've always yearned.", Amaterasu said.

"There is more to this rendezvous than just useless chatter isn't it?", Itachi queried.

"Yes", the goddess answered. "Before I forget…", from the sleeves of her kimono, she pulled out a familiar-looking jian or a double-edged sword. "We found the Kusanagi tied to your soul. Perhaps, it was because you sealed Orochimaru and along with him, is this sword. You will keep this."

Itachi received the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi without much complaint from Amaterasu's offering hands,

"It is almost daytime", said the goddess. Itachi felt like they have only been talking for minutes but he knew that time moved differently between his dreamscape and the real world.

"Thank you, Amaterasu-omikami", Itachi said with a bow.

The sun deity smiled. "Best of luck, Uchiha Itachi."

 **So, what do you guys think? I know gods and divinity don't really coincide with Naruto canon with Kaguya and the Sage of the Six Paths being godlike beings and all, but hey, it's not like my crossover story was the only that used gods as a plot device. As a note, I stopped reading Naruto somewhere when "chakra originated from this rabbit chick eating the forbidden fruit", since 13-year old me thought that the main character was a Jesus allegory, but I was stupid, really stupid.**

 **Can this story reach 200 faves by the 5th chapter? I'm curious so please fave, follow and most of all, REVIEW!**

 **Can you recommend your fave poems and poets? I'm running out of epigraphs to put in my chapters. BTW, I have a tumblr, it's mostly art and literature stuff with occasional bits of original poetry, just PM me if you want the URL.**

 **REVIEW, type something in that box below. ;-)**


End file.
